Method of providing targeted advertisements to a computer mediated communications network

Abstract

Prioritized queues of advertising and content data are generated by a queue builder and sent to an on-line queue manager. A computer mediated communications network provides content and subscriber data to the queue builder and receives content segment play lists from the on-line queue manager. An exposure accounting module calculates and stores information about the number of exposures of targeted material received by subscribers and generates billing information. An information warehouse manager is employed to receive data from advertisers' data bases and third party sources as well as from the computer mediated communications network.

What is claimed is:  
     
       1. A method of operating a computerized system that targets advertisements to users of a communications network, comprising: 
       defining advertising campaigns and defining advertisements to be displayed to users of the communications network in accordance with the advertising campaigns and targeting criteria associated therewith;  
       defining an advertising sequence which requires that a series of said advertisements be displayed to a user in a sequential order;  
       receiving requests for advertisements from applications running on the communications network;  
       in response to a request for an advertisement, selecting an advertisement from said advertisements in accordance with an advertisement selection process and providing an identification of the selected advertisement to the requesting application, wherein the advertising selection process selects the advertisement based on a prioritized collection of said advertisements;  
       determining whether the selected advertisement is part of said advertising sequence;  
       if the selected advertisement is part of said advertising sequence, modifying the advertisement selection process such that a next advertisement in the advertising sequence is selected in response to a next request for an advertisement in connection with a same user to which the previously selected advertisement in the advertising sequence was provided.  
     
     
       2. The method as defined in  claim 1 , further including assigning values to each of the advertisements, wherein each value indicates a present importance of the advertisement relative to the other advertisements based on at least one predetermined criteria, and further including using the values in the advertising selection process to select an advertisement in response to a request for an advertisement from an application running on the communications network. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 2 , further including: 
       defining exposure goals for the advertising campaigns;  
       monitoring exposures of advertisements in the network for each advertising campaign;  
       determining for each campaign if a current number of exposures for the campaign is consistent with the exposure goal for the campaign; and  
       if the current number of exposures for a campaign is not consistent with the exposure goal for the campaign, adjusting at least one of the values in order to influence which advertisement is selected in response to future requests from the network.  
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 3 , wherein determining whether a current number of exposures is consistent with the exposure goal for the campaign includes comparing a percentage of the current number of exposures to the desired number of exposures with a percentage of an amount of time the campaign has been running to the given period of time for the campaign. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 3 , wherein determining if a current number of exposures is consistent with the exposure goal of the campaign includes determining if the campaign is behind or ahead of schedule relative to the exposure goal. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 5 , wherein, if it is determined that the campaign is behind schedule, adjusting at least one of the values includes increasing a value of an advertisement associated with the campaign in order to increase future exposures thereof. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 5 , wherein, if it determined that the campaign is ahead of schedule, adjusting at least one of the values includes decreasing a value of an advertisement associated with the campaign in order to reduce future exposures thereof. 
     
     
       8. A method of operating a computerized system that targets advertisements to users of a communications network, comprising: 
       defining advertising campaigns and defining advertisements to be displayed to users of the communications network in accordance with the advertising campaigns and targeting criteria associated therewith;  
       defining an advertising sequence which requires that a series of said advertisements be displayed to a user in a sequential order;  
       defining an exposure delay for the advertising sequence, wherein the exposure delay defines an approximate amount of time that should pass before a next advertisement in the advertising sequence is selected following the selection of a previous advertisement in the advertising sequence;  
       receiving requests for advertisements from applications running on the communications network;  
       in response to a request for an advertisement, selecting an advertisement from said advertisements in accordance with an advertisement selection process and providing an identification of the selected advertisement to the requesting application, wherein the advertising selection process selects the advertisement based on a prioritized collection of said advertisements;  
       determining whether the selected advertisement is part of said advertising sequence;  
       if the selected advertisement is part of said advertising sequence, modifying the advertisement selection process such that a next advertisement in the advertising sequence is selected in response to a next request after the exposure delay for an advertisement in connection with a same user to which the previously selected advertisement in the advertising sequence was provided.  
     
     
       9. The method as defined in  claim 8 , further including assigning values to each of the advertisements, wherein each value indicates a present importance of the advertisement relative to the other advertisements based on at least one predetermined criteria, and further including using the values in the advertising selection process to select an advertisement in response to a request for an advertisement from an application running on the communications network. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9 , further including: 
       defining exposure goals for the advertising campaigns;  
       monitoring exposures of advertisements in the network for each advertising campaign;  
       determining for each campaign if a current number of exposures for the campaign is consistent with the exposure goal for the campaign; and  
       if the current number of exposures for a campaign is not consistent with the exposure goal for the campaign, adjusting at least one of the values in order to influence which advertisement is selected in response to future requests from the network.  
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 10 , wherein determining whether a current number of exposures is consistent with the exposure goal for the campaign includes comparing a percentage of the current number of exposures to the desired number of exposures with a percentage of an amount of time the campaign has been running to the given period of time for the campaign. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 10 , wherein determining if a current number of exposures is consistent with the exposure goal of the campaign includes determining if the campaign is behind or ahead of schedule relative to the exposure goal. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 12 , wherein, if it is determined that the campaign is behind schedule, adjusting at least one of the values includes increasing a value of an advertisement associated with the campaign in order to increase future exposures thereof. 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 12 , wherein, if it determined that the campaign is ahead of schedule, adjusting at least one of the values includes decreasing a value of an advertisement associated with the campaign in order to reduce future exposures thereof.